The First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas

of public participation, effective leadership, and consequently strong socio-political
support. Among the “lessons learned” are that, especially when considering highly
migratory species, a multi-layered approach is often appropriate: special management
areas may be needed (in addition to zoning) so that specific controls can be imposed on
a case-by-case basis (e.g., reducing whale-vessel interactions); individual agreements may
need to be made with users (e.g., in the case of subsistence hunting of marine turtles and
dugongs); and international cooperation (e.g., IWC) may be relevant.
Promoting the Conservation Status of Large Whales: MPAs
Doug DeMaster and Robert L. Brownell, Jr.
Throughout the world’s oceans, the 13 currently recognized species of large whales
occur in more than 100 separate populations. Individual whales from more than 50 of
those populations are reported to have been taken as bycatch in commercial fisheries.
Unfortunately, the impacts of fishery bycatch on most whale populations are unknown,
but for at least three populations the impact is known to be significant: (1) “J stock” of
common minke whales in the western North Pacific, (2) western North Pacific gray
whales, and (3) western North Atlantic right whales. From a conservation perspective,
promoting the recovery of these populations depends at least partly on mitigating
bycatch.
Considerable effort is underway to address the threat of bycatch to North Atlantic right
whales, including the establishment of MPAs and restrictions on fishing. However, the
bycatch threat to both western gray whales and J-stock minke whales remains largely
unmitigated. For minke whales, reported bycatch in the western North Pacific has
increased from very low levels in the early 1980s to more than 200 whales per year since
2001. In waters off Korea, all bycaught minke whales are likely to be J-stock animals, and
off Japan, a significant fraction of the bycaught animals are likely to be from J stock. If
the current annual level of removals is maintained, the population of J-stock minke
whales will be extirpated in less than 50 years.
While reported bycatch of gray whales in the western North Pacific is limited to waters
off Japan, there is an urgent need to eliminate any bycatch of these gray whales because
of their critically endangered status. For J-stock minke whales, as noted above, bycatch
rates, along with other types of anthropogenic removals, must be reduced significantly
for the population to recover. Where seasonal restrictions on commercial fishing or
modifications of fishing gear or practices are not effective, complete closures to those
gear types that entangle either species (e.g., no-use MPAs) should be established in key
areas.
ICMMPA <strong>Conference</strong> Proceedings
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